Nof Tzion Pledges Pass Half-Way Mark; Deadline Postponed

More than 50 percent of needed pledges have met a threat of an Arab buying up the Nof Tzion building project in Jerusalem as deadline postponed.

Contact Editor

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, 26/12/10 14:08 | updated: 14:16

Nof Zion

Israel news photo: Haggai Huberman

More than 50 percent of needed pledges have answered the threat of a Palestinian Authority Arab based in the United States who is prepared to buy up the national religious Nof Tzion building project in Jerusalem. A meeting of bondholders of the bankrupt company was postponed from Sunday to Tuesday.

Bondholders of the Digal company are upset over a proposal by attorney Dov Weisglass to sell the bonds to the American of Palestinian Authority origin, whom he has not identified. The bondholders will meet to vote on the proposal.

An effort to keep the project in Jewish hands has attracted 60 percent of the money needed to buy the land, but NIS 6.7 million ($1.9 million) still is needed to buy up the bonds, along with NIS 20 million ($5.5 million) lacking for the land. The figures were supplied by Aryeh King, who is a leader in developing a Jewish presence in areas of Jerusalem restored to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The company representing the mysterious would-be American-Arab buyer is registered in Cyprus. One bondholder charged that Weisglass “is hiding something [because] if everything were on the up-and-up, why is he hiding the identity of the Palestinian?”

Bondholders include residents of Tel Aviv, Haifa and even members of kibbutzim, in addition to residents of Jerusalem.

"It's not a matter of religious or secular,” said one bondholder. “This is Jerusalem and it belongs to everyone.

The first phase of the project was completed long ago, and much has been written about the 90 families' satisfaction with their new neighbors, neighborhood, and surroundings. However, they are more than apprehensive that if the project falls into Arab hands, the 180 planned units of Stages II and III of the project will not only not be built, but that their own homes also will become an unsafe Jewish enclave surrounded by Arab homes.